January 2006 Federation Minutes Pledge to the Flag: Niagara County Federation of Conservation Clubs January 2006 Meeting held on the 23rd. Called to order at 7:00 p.m. by President John Butcher at the 4-H Bldg., Lockport, New York with the Pledge to the Flag. Guest Speaker: None. Minutes: A motion was made by Gordon Botting SR. to accept the minutes as corrected, 2nd by William Mudge, carried. Roll Call of Clubs and Directors: Sheets were passed around and signed by the delegates. We have some new delegates so President John Butcher requested everyone to introduce him or herself and state what clubs they represented. Fii~iancial Report: Gordon Botting Gordon mentioned he would only show on The Treasurer s report income & expenses by the month for all future treasurers reports. Motion to accept the financial report presented by Gordon Botting Sr. was made by Mark Richardson, 2nd by Gerry Bennett, carried. Communications Bills and Notices: None Sick Call: Gary Lowe, delegate from the LaSalle Sportsmen s Club has had bypass surgery and is recuperating. A card was passed around for all the delegates to sign. Committee Reports: President John Butcher reminded all delegates to fill out an NCFCC COMMITTEE AND CLUB REPORT FORM and give it to Secretary William Mudge in the interest of having accurate information in the minutes. (See Insert) Finance and Audit: John Butcher reported the 2005 Audit and year-end financials are complete. 1- His bookkeeper keyboarded all income and expenses into QuickBooks and organized it into a chart of accounts created by John and Gordon Botting SR. 2- The bookkeeper also reconciled the checkbook and corrected errors. 3- We will only show on The Treasurer s report income & expenses by the month for 2006. 4- All year-ends completed. P/1 general ledger and balance sheet. 5- The balance sheet needs to have an adjustment to the Asset Account. Treasurer Gordon Botting Sr. will take a year-end inventory. Once we have the physical inventory taken we will adjust the asset account to reflect the value of our current inventory such as the shooting trailer, knives, gift certificates etc.
Fund Raising: Patches: President John Butcher is still waiting on proofs to the changes to our porcupine patch for next year. Knives: John reported we have two knives left. So far we have produced income of $1995.00 from these knives. They cost us $350.00. The Holiday Raffle on Knife #1 was won by David Rankie ticket 195 sold by Michael Thompson. Michael will make arrangements to get the knife to David Rankie. Annual Shoot: John Butcher reported a date has not been set. We may move the event to this October. If you want to be on the committee contact John. Grants: John Butcher reported that he completed the paper work for the NRA Foundation Grant and mailed in the Final Report, which was due on or before May 20, 2006 to Sandy Elkin at NRA Headquarters. John also plans to request a 2006 grant to cover shooting supplies for the Mobile Air Rifle Range in 2006, John has not received any information from our other grants: NYS Dec (Maziarz Grant), NYS Office of Children & Family Services (DelMonte Grant). County Funds: Gordon Botting Sr reported the funds from Niagara County Legislature will show up on our treasurer s report next month. Newsletters: John would like this to be a topic at our next executive meeting. John has two ideas to save money: 1- Cut back to 10 issues per year, omitting July and December issues. The Picnic and Holiday Party. 2- Would like to see the ads cover more of this expense. If anyone knows anybody that wants to buy an advertisement have, them contact Gordon Botting at 716-434-1563. Public Relations: No Report Rosters: John Butcher reported December and January appears to be the months that most of our clubs hold elections. Get your updated rosters turned in so that new officers are getting the minutes. We have 6 clubs with December elections and 10 with January elections. Also include delegates, hunter Education Instructors and youth leaders. Small Game: No Report Big Game: Dale Dunkelberger No report on the deer take is available yet. Water Fowl: No Report
Dave Whitt reported the Ducks Unlimited Chapter of Niagara Falls is having their Banquet at the Niagara Club on March 11, 2006. Hunter Safety: County Coordinator Dave Lavery has requested that all Hunter Education Instructors fill out the CLASS SCHEDULE DATA SHEET and return them to him. If you have questions please contact Dave. Dave Lavery - 9865 Mountain Rd, Middleport, NY 14105. Phone: 716-735-3343, Email: clavelave@hotmail.com (See Insert) Sports Fishing: Paul Jackson - No Report. The State of the Lake meeting will be scheduled sometime in March. Habitat: Dave Whitt reported Habitat Day will be February 11, 2006. CFAB: Bill Hilts Sr. reported on the meeting of January 9, 2006. NYS is now down below 500,00 big game license holders. A few years ago we were over 700,000. The prediction for license sales declined this year is 5%. CFAB has started lobbying state legislators in Albany working for passage of 14 and 15 year old big game bill and legalizing the crossbow. The FWMA, SCJ, NYSCC and others are doing the same thing. Urge everyone to write letters, emails and phone calls to state legislators. Proposed changes to fishing regulations a good amount of opposition is showing up. Most concern is over extended Bass Fishing Rules. Many believe it is for tournament fishermen. Not true rule requires the fish to be released immediately. These proposals have been on the table for over a year. A meeting is Syracuse in December, showed no opposition. Firearms Legislation: Bill Hilts mentioned that Wally John, Legislative Vice-President of the NYSCC interview Eliot Spitzer for the January 2006 Grass Roots News. Bill recommended everyone read the article, in his opinion it has hurt the NYSCC. John Butcher announced Francine DelMonte requested he and Secretary Bill Mudge represent the Niagara County Federation of Sportsmen at a meeting at the Hyatt this Thursday at noon to meet with Eliot Spitzer s staff. John thought we ought to attend because Francine DelMonte has been good to us by voting for sportsmen s issues and getting the $5000.00 grant for the NCFCC Trailer. Bill Mudge stated since he was the secretary of the Federation and will attend this meeting out of respect for Francine DelMonte. Bill said he is only interested in 2nd Amendment, hunting, fishing and conservation issues. Bill doesn t think Eliot Spitzer is a friend of the gun owners, sportsmen and conservationist in Western New York. Spitzer has sued gun manufactures with our tax money. Bill said he has concerns over COBIS, the 50-caliber assembly bill and would like to see the Eddie Eagle gun safety program introduced into the schools. Bill said he would express these views at the meeting. Region Nine Fish and Wildlife Board: - Greg Tessmann Greg reported they are working on a conservation and eco-tourist idea for the Seneca White Tail
Deer. http://www.senecawhitedeer.org Greg reported the DEC is preparing a soft launch fishing access site in Tonawanda Creek in rapids. Greg is still working on draft for opening land for hunting on private property. Greg reported we need a legislative representative to the Fish and Wildlife board. The board deals with habitat and public access. President John Butcher will make calls and try to get someone from the Niagara County Legislature to represent us. NYS Conservation Council: Dale Dunkelberger Gerry Bennett announced he retired and Dale Dunkelberger is taking his place on the council. S.C.O.P.E.: Bill Mudge Bill passed around some Scope information on Eliot Spitzer anti-gun agenda and encouraged everyone to join SCOPE today. Bill passed around a copy of SCOPE=s 2005 Legislative Report for this week. There are more than 14 pages of bills we are reviewing. The highlighted bills need to be watched or are on the move. New information is in red. If a bill comes out of a committee we oppose and goes to the floor - we send out alerts to members. If you go to our website www.scopeny.org you can download a PDF file of bills we are reviewing. The site is updated weekly. Go to web page: http://scopeny.org/archjves/scope Legislative Rei~ort.pdf 4H: Shooting Sports No Report. Pheasant Program Greg Tessmann reported Bob Glidden, 4H Pheasant Program Committee Chairman is looking for volunteers to be mentors again this year. Conservation Education - No Report. Niagara County Fair - Our participation at the Fair will be with the Shooting Trailer. Greg Tessrnann will check on sites available for our trailer. Wildlife Festival - No Report. Environmental Field Days - No Report. DEC Youth Camn Paul Jackson reported we can start submitting names February 11 ~ Start thinking some names of kids to submit that would be interested. Town of Wheatfield Picnic - No Report.
Shooting Trailer - John Butcher reported the Mobile Air Rifle Range will be setup at Western New York Boat Show 1/25/2006-1/29/2006 at the Summit Park Mall. We need volunteers to help, especially hunter education instructors. Convention: Awards Banquet - Gordon Botting, John Butcher, Matt Zornosky The date of the Awards Banquet is Saturday April 1, 2006 at the Holiday Inn (Formerly The Best Western) in Lockport. John has Award Nomination forms available. He requested all delegates to take then back to their clubs and get some nominations for awards next year. John is putting together a list of people and the year they won an award. If you know anyone who has won an NCFCC award contact John. In the past we have overlooked people because we assumed they have already won an award. Gordon Botting requested all delegates ask their clubs to donate a prize. Application for Membership: - None. Old Business: None New Business: None For the Good of the Federation: Hartland Conservation Club: Matt Zornosky reported they are having their Winter Silhouette Shoot on Saturdays and their Blizzard Trap League on Sundays. (See Insert) Iroquois Arms Collectors: William Mudge reported their next meeting is February 8, 2006 at AMVETS Post 26 on 600 Ward Road in North Tonawanda at 8:00 p.m. Don t miss our next Gun Show on February 11 & 12 at the AMVETS. Niagara Orleans Friends of the NRA: William Mudge, John Butcher William Mudge announced the 2006 Friends of the NRA Banquet will be March 25, 2006 at Sarnuels Grande Manor. Tickets are $30.00 per person. The NRA Gun of the Year is a limited edition Weatherby Vanguard SS.270 WSM w/leupold 3-9x Scope and hard case. Tickets are $5.00 each, 3 for $10.00 or 7 for $20.00. If you are interested call Bill at 716-772-2261. Niagara River Anglers Association: Paul Jackson The Anglers will be setup at Western New York Boat Show 1/25/2006-1/29/2006 at the Summit Park Mall. The Anglers will be having their Annual Winter Outing this year on 2/11/2006 at the ponds.
The Anglers will be having a steelhead contest 2/18/2006 at the sand docks. Pheasants Forever of Western New York: Dave Whitt The Pheasants Forever Banquet is at Father Justine s on March 25,2006. The Youth Day will be Saturday September 16, 2006 at the 3F Club. (See Insert s) SCOPE: William Mudge Bill reported their next meeting is December 21, 2005 at the American Legion Post 410, 42 Niagara Street in Lockport at 7:00 p.m. everyone is welcome to attend as his guest. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn, Don Bronson, 2nd Pam Leaderhouse, carried. Respectfully submitted, William A. Mudge Secretary, NCFCC For information about the NCFCC including minutes, and upcoming events check us out at: www.outdoorsniagara.com